The Perfect Rutgers Road Game for 2015

Today, with half a winter and a full spring and summer between us and the resumption of Rutgers football, we just got some great news about the 2015 season. The game between the Scarlet Knights and the Black Knights will be moving from the evil field in the Bronx to one of the best football locations in the nation, Michie Stadium at West Point.

I'll be there with my traveling companion. I hope it's better weather than the cold rain and snow mix we had in 2007. Other than being cold and wet, I remember that game for Ray Rice's 243 rushing yards and watching James Gandolfini mingling with the cadets on the sidelines. There were tons of empty seats in the wet upper deck that year, but let's fill it with scarlet in 2015.

Ray Who?

Can you name one famous NFL Scarlet Knight who hasn't been included on this IBEW wall behind Section 107?

Rutgers and Kansas State in the news.

There's an article in the Washington Post this morning, "Long way from dark days, Kansas State and Rutgers surge into position for memorable seasons," about the Scarlet Knights and the Wildcats, their 4-0 starts, and their current national rankings.

The writer of the article dares to look ahead in a way that this writer dares not:

"Rutgers’ next five games line up like this: home against UConn, home against Syracuse, at Temple, home against Kent State and home against Army. It doesn’t take much of a leap of faith to project the Scarlet Knights getting to 9-0, and bringing back memories of 2006 when they went 11-2 and stunningly slipped into the national championship conversation for about a week.
"Can Rutgers and Kansas State stay undefeated heading into November? It won’t take a miracle."

When I see the names of these two schools in one sentence, I think back instead of forward. I think of my first trip to Texas with my son, my first bowl game, and the Scarlet Knights' 37-10 win in the 2006 Texas Bowl. This 46-yard TD run by Ray Rice was only one of many highlights:

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

I'm not near a television, so I didn't see it happen, but it's great to see the stat line after the first quarter in Foxboro, Massachusetts with Ray Rice having 94 yards and two touchdowns for the Ravens after fifteen minutes of play.As I typed this and uploaded the picture of Ray from ESPN's splash page, I just watched Ray go over 100 yards on NFL GameCast with his 8th rush of the game at the beginning of the 2nd quarter. As I said in my headline, this success could not be happening to a nicer guy. He continues to make everyone with any connection to Rutgers extremely proud and happy that we shared some time with him on the Banks of the Old Raritan.
Run Ray Run, as they used to say on the t-shirts in Rutgers Stadium.

Once a Scarlet Knight, Always a Scarlet Knight.

Congratulations to Ray Rice for his election to this year's Pro Bowl for his work with the Baltimore Ravens.
Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a video of Ray up in Toronto at the International Bowl during his last game wearing the R on his helmet.

re: Ray Rice's professional progress

From page three of Don Banks' "Inside the NFL" at SI.com dated this morning:

"The more I see of Baltimore rookie running back Ray Rice, and the more Willis McGahee continues to have health-related question marks surrounding his surgically repaired left knee, the more I'd be inclined to snap up Rice if I were one of those Fantasy Football playing types (which I'm not).

"Ravens rookie head coach John Harbaugh loves the kid, but for now has to stick with the company line that McGahee is his starter. But no matter what the semantics, Baltimore is going to use the rookie from Rutgers early and often. And the onus is on McGahee to re-prove that he can be counted on to get on the field and produce.

"Rice touched the ball 11 times at home against the Vikings on Saturday and produced 94 yards, including a 42-yard burst the first time his number was called before the hometown fans. But that was only the start of the love affair. It's going to get better, Baltimore."

Baltimore may learn to love Ray as much as they love Michael Phelps (and as much as Ray is loved in New Brunswick, New Jersey).

Welcome Desmond Scott!

"Desmond Scott of Durham, N.C., rated the No. 2 all-purpose running back in the country by Rivals.com, verbally committed to Rutgers today," reports Tom Luicci of the Star-Ledger this afternoon.

Yesterday we were "warned" that this announcement of another highly-ranked 2009 recruit might be coming today and it was suggested in that article that Scott may have been tipped in his decision by the fact that Rutgers was the school of Ray Rice, a very similar back in terms of size and style.

I have another theory, found in an article that appeared in Yahoo Sports back on March 10 when Scott was starting his tour of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Maryland, North Carolina, Duke, and others, including RU.

“First of all I want to see how the academics are at the school. I want to major in education and be a social studies teacher and eventually a school principal. Secondly, I’ll look at the coaches and players and if I can get along with them and how I interact with them. Next, I’ll look at the city life and what I can do there and whether I can stay or leave after college. Finally, location doesn’t really matter as long as my family can come see me in a day’s drive.”

Anyone who's saying "first of all I want to see how academics are at the school" has to have been impressed when the NCAA's Academic Progress Report numbers came out in early May with Rutgers trailing only Stanford and Navy -- leading the Big East, and all other state universities, once again. Of course, another of Desmond Scott's schools, Duke, was tied with RU at #3 in the APRs, but I don't think Duke is thinking about challenging for a BCS bowl in the next four or five years.

Welcome to Rutgers Desmond!

(Here's a short summary of the most recent 2009 commitments).

Ray Rice (number 39?) on the Ravens

It's strange to see a picture of Ray Rice wearing a number other than 27, and a helmet other than a scarlet one (he did wear a black jersey during one unmemorable game against West Virginia last November), but it's great to read in this article from today's Washington Post, "Small, Tough and 'Our Kind of Guy'," about how well he's impressing his coaches and teammates in the Baltimore Ravens' minicamp. There are glowing quotes about Ray from Ravens staffers Eric DeCosta, Craig Ver Steeg, Ozzie Newsome, and head coach John Harbaugh, who says, "I just think he's our kind of guy. . . . That's high character, and he's tough, rough, loves to play football. He's a playmaker, and he's not just a one-play playmaker. He's a durable playmaker." There's also one quote from Ray himself, "I would love to be a spark. I would love to be a guy who gets in the game, and there's not a letdown. I want to be in the game and oh shoot, the defense is on their heels." Those of us who remember seeing Ray come in as a freshman backup, have no doubt that he's capable of doing the same thing on the next level.

There's also a quote from Ray on ESPN.com about the way he looks at the running back who's currently the star of the Ravens' rushing offense, Willis McGahee:

"It's like a dream come true to have a guy like that in front of you," Rice said. "I'm definitely learning from him and watching the things that he does, from his footwork to how he carries himself."

It sounds a lot like the way that Ray Rice looked up to, learned from, and talked about Brian Leonard, doesn't it? It's a positive attitude that we fans of the Scarlet Knights know well, and it's one that should take him far. If I were Willis McGahee, I might be a little concerned for my job.

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The Ravens minicamp was also in the news this morning because of an on-field brawl between teammates during the minicamp, but Ray does not seem to be listed as one of those involved.

Ray Rice is a Baltimore Raven

Ray went in the second round of this evening's NFL Draft.

Ray Rice vs. Norfolk State, 15 Sept. 2007 (click to enlarge)

Congratulations to the Ravens and to Ray.

Here's today's football fix.

Is is really too late for Ray Rice to change his mind and come back for one more year??

That was a fun trip to Toronto.

A Rutgers Record That Will Never Be Broken?

In the 2007 Season Notebook that appeared on ScarletKnights.com today, this nugget of information about the Knights' balanced offense appeared:

The 2007 Scarlet Knights are the first team in NCAA history to have a 3,000-yard passer, 2,000-yard rusher and a pair of 1,000-yard receivers in the same season.
Rutgers, 2007
Mike Teel (3,147 passer)
Ray Rice (2,012 rusher)
Kenny Britt (1,232 receiver)
Tiquan Underwood (1,100 receiver)

That sounds impressive enough, but I was thinking that there must have been at least one 3,000-yard passer / 2,000-yard rusher combo in the history of the NCAA, but no:

Only two other teams in NCAA history have had a 2,000-yard passer, 2,000-yard rusher and one 1,000-yard receiver.[emphasis added]

Oklahoma St., 1988
Mike Gundy [2,163 passer)
Barry Sanders [2,628 rusher)
Hart Lee Dykes [1,278 receiver]

Texas, 1998
Major Applewhite [2,453 passer]
Ricky Williams [2,124 rusher]
Wane McGarity [1,087 receiver]

It's interesting to see that it's a once-a-decade occurrence, usually with a star running back leading the way. Here's hoping that the Teel/Britt/Underwood airshow can keep defenses honest and open some running lanes for Kordell Young and Mason Robinson (and others) in 2008.

The perfect song verse for the Scarlet Knights taking the field in the Fall of 2008

Ray Rice, Ray's Mom, Mason Robinson, and shutterbugs
on the big screen at the Rogers Centre on January 5

Now I don't mind choppin' wood
And I don't care if the money's no good
You take what you need and you leave the rest
But they should never have taken the very best.

from"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"
by Robbie Robertson

This song appears prominently in the February 2008 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine. Eerily appropriate today, isn't it, as the very best Scarlet Knight leaves for the NFL and leaves the wood chopping to the rest of our very talented players?

Good Luck Ray,
and Go Knights!

Good Luck in the NFL Ray!

This news is just in:

Ray Rice, by declaring for the NFL draft as a junior, is the first player in the Greg Schiano era to leave Rutgers before his senior year, but who can really blame him? Will he ever have a better college game than the one that we had the absolute pleasure of watching up in Toronto on Saturday afternoon? Should he really risk missing his big payday because of a possible injury? Of course not. But we'll still miss him.

Good luck Ray! Thank you for everything!

Rice leaves Rutgers as the school's all-time leader in 100-yard games (25), 200-yard games (6), career rushing yards (4,926), career rushing attempts (910), career rushing touchdowns (49), single-season rushing yards (2,012 in 2007), single-season rushing touchdowns (24 in 2007), single-season rushing attempts (380 in 2007), single-game rushing yards (280 vs. Ball State, 2008 International Bowl), single-season scoring (150 points in 2007), single-season all-purpose yards (2,251 in 2007), consecutive 100-yard games (8 in 2007), longest rushing touchdown (90 vs. Ball State, 2008 International Bowl) and tied the school record for longest run from scrimmage (90 vs. Ball State, 2008 International Bowl).

from ScarletKnights.com

Now here's to hoping that he ends up playing for one of those teams in the Meadowlands so that we can continue to watch him every week on local TV, and occasionally in person.

Thank you for the last three years Ray! No matter where you go, you will always be a Scarlet Knight.

Ray on the Bike

The luck of the draw put our seats right behind the spot where Ray Rice took the bench after every offensive series. I love the snapshot up above. Right after halftime, number 27 went straight to the exercise bike behind the offensive bench and was pedaling as the Knights and the Cardinals lined up on the International Bowl logo for the second-half kickoff. His focus and his extra time on his conditioning paid off very early in the third quarter when the Knights started their first second-half possession on their own 2 yard line and Ray single-handedly picked up the missing 98 yards in three runs; the third a gaudy 90-yard sprint that took every bit of his talent and conditioning.

• It was a pleasure to be in Toronto to see the Scarlet Knights win 52-30.
• It was a pleasure to see Ray Rice topple Rutgers and Big East records with almost every run.
• It was a pleasure to be in Toronto. Period.

I just flew back this afternoon. Postgame highlights included trips to the Hockey Hall of Fame, to Niagara Falls, and nightly visits to a great local downtown pub. I hope that the International Bowl continues to draw bigger crowds and survives as the only game outside the US (and not only because the drinking age is 19 in Ontario). It's a wonderful city. I'd like to see the Knights make it to a bigger bowl next year, but if not, I'd go back north in a shot (and not just because O Canada is a much better song than The Star Spangled Banner).

And, as we all chanted after each of Ray's four touchdowns on Saturday afternoon until we were hoarse, "One More Year! One More Year!"

Vote for Rice for the Doak Walker

Ray Rice has now been named one of the three finalists for the Doak Walker award (along with Mike Hart and Darren McFadden) and you can vote here to give the award for the nation's best running back to your favorite Scarlet Knight.

Meet our friends over at Card Chronicle before the last game of the season

Our friends over at Card Chronicle, in today's weekly roundup of the top performers in the Big East, have Ray Rice's 121 yards against Pittsburgh in week twelve as only the #8 offensive performance of the week, but Ray is leading Pat White, Brian Brohm, Matt Grothe, and the rest with only a couple of games left for the offensive player of the year honors.

There are no Rutgers defensive players in the running for the yearly honors, but last week Kevin Malast was #9 for his 11 tackles and a sack, and Devin McCourty was #3 for his 4 tackles, 1 fumble recovery, and his game-sealing interception.

Rutgers was Team of the Week in this Card Chronicle wrap-up, not for the beauty of last week's win, but because last week's win guarantees a 2007 bowl appearance for the Scarlet Knights.

The Cardinals, especially at home, are still a very scary bunch even after this season's disappointments. I hope the Knights are prepared for Brohm and crew on the 29th.

Saturday is Senior Day at Rutgers Stadium, but will a certain Junior be playing his last home game as well?

Ray Rice vs. Norfolk State, 15 Sept. 2007 (click to enlarge)

Tara Sullivan entitles her column in The Record today "RU's Rice Should Go to NFL."

. . . Rice owes Rutgers nothing. He's not going to get any bigger or faster by playing one more season, but he surely will get a lot more tackled. And with one recent NFL Players Association report putting the average career of an NFL running back at 2.3 years (the lowest among all position groups and well below the 3.2 overall average), why wouldn't Rice want to start out as fresh and healthy as possible?
As one NFL executive put it recently, "Rice should go before Schiano gets him killed."

All that being said, and knowing that I would have personally had a great deal of trouble delaying a multi-million-dollar payday to spend another year On The Banks, I'd love to see Ray Rice follow Brian Leonard's example and come back to Rutgers for his senior season. He could be in the first class to go to four straight bowl games, he could raise the sword to direct the band in the Alma Mater on his Senior Day like Brian did last November versus Syracuse, and he could take another run at the Heisman trophy and the few remaining all-time Big East rushing records. But if he doesn't ... if he does do the logical thing for a talented man of limited financial means and start his professional career a year early, we can't blame him. We met a man from New Rochelle at last Friday's Army game who was sure that Ray will begin earning a big paycheck as soon as possible just because of the neighborhood he's from (and from which he wants to help his family escape). In any decision Ray makes, he is balancing noble motives against noble motives.

Whether he comes back for the 2008 season at Rutgers Stadium or not, we should cheer heartily every time number 27 touches the ball on Saturday against Pittsburgh. Cheer as if it may be the last time that we're privileged to see the sight on Rutgers' home field.

All that being said, Don't Go Ray.

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VOTE FOR RAY FOR THE DOAK WALKER BY CLICKING HERE.

Vote for Ray for the Heisman Here.

Rutgers vs. Pittsburgh (the 2005 version) was a turning point

Click Here for a great recap by Aditi Kinkhabwala of the last meeting between the Panthers and the Scarlet Knights at R House on Friday, September 30, 2005.

The win marked the first time Rutgers (3-1, 1-0) won its league opener in 11 years. It was the first time the Scarlet Knights took out Pitt (1-4, 0-1) in seven years, the first time they've won three games in a row in 13 years and the first time they refused to allow the old trappings of Rutgers football to wholly trap them.

For those of us who were there that night, it certainly seemed, along with the Michigan State game the year before, like a turning point for our Knights. And as with the Michigan State game the year before, we saw the lucky banner unfurled in the stands:

The biggest fan-made sign across from Pitt's bench read "Beat Visitor" . . .

Her article also reminds us how many young players who are still on the team made important contributions in that pivotal victory. Tiquan Underwood played quarterback for a number of snaps, switching places with Ryan Hart at the last minute (Ryan took Tiquan's place at wide receiver) and running a Jabu Lovelace-type shotgun offense that caught the Pitt defense (and many of us in the stands) totally off guard. Glen Lee made a memorable fumble-inducing hit on an early kickoff. Jeremy Ito kicked three field goals. "Mike Teel of Oakland" moved the team from the RU 9 to the Pitt 46 on one series. And, it isn't mentioned in her article but a kid named Ray Rice carried 15 times for 114 yards, his first hundred-yard game of many.

Who'll Stop the Rain?

I hoped to get some nice pictures of Michie Stadium and the Corps of Cadets to illustrate this entry about last night's tournament of traditional gridiron skills between the Black Knights of the Hudson and the Scarlet Knights of the Raritan, but, as with the West Virginia game, I didn't feel like sacrificing my camera to the rain (and snow last night), so here's an appropriate picture taken before this season's USF game back in October.

It was obviously the Ray Rice show up at West Point last night with his school-record-breaking 243 yards and fifth game of 200+ yards. He now has 1,500 yards on the season with Pittsburgh and Louisville still to come.

But it was also at least partially the Jabu Lovelace show. He was the starting quarterback for every offensive touchdown in last night's 41-6 victory and he was in the game long enough -- between Mike Teel's 1st-quarter start and Chris Paul-Etienne's 4th-quarter mopping up -- to show a mix of play calls. Of course, given the weather conditions and the game situation, it was mostly a variety of rushing plays, but he even had one great long ball thrown to Tim Brown in the end zone that was only called back because Tim had placed a foot out of bounds on his dash down the sideline.

It was also a great defensive performance. The defense did not allow a single point or one sustained drive. The six points that Army put on the board were given to them via a sideline interception thrown by Mike Teel (quarterback rating 2.1 on 1 of 4 passing last night) in the first quarter. The coaches seriously need to think about finally giving Jabu Lovelace his first start next Saturday against Pitt. If Mike Teel's thumb isn't fully healed in the next week, they'd be stupid to do otherwise.

The most amazing statistic of last night's victory comes from the article about the game on ScarletKnights.com stating that this is the "...first road victory in the month of November since the 1998 season and the first of the Greg Schiano era." For long-time fans, one of the of the best things about the last three years is seeing these ugly monkeys falling from the back of the Knights.

Are you intimidated.....

. . . by the little white doggy? Yeah, maybe if it had rabies. Or if Mike Vick were training it. I feel great about this weekend's game at UCONN. Could I be wrong? Sure. But I don't think I am. This is a great matchup for Rutgers. After facing two mobile quarterbacks in the last two weeks, our knights get to face a QB who THINKS he can run and generally sticks to short, dink dunk passes. Rutgers needs to cover the flats on D and they should be fine. I'm more concerned with the run defense on Saturday than anything else. If I could name anybody who actually plays for UCONN, I could give more insight on the RU defensive strategy, but I can't. The Huskies have seemingly relied on their D all year, carrying them to wins over such stalwarts like DUKE, MAINE, TEMPLE, PITTSBURGH, and AKRON. If that schedule hasn't yet melted the BCS computers, it soon may. They beat Louisville on an absolute bullshit touchdown, so really, the only legitimate win was against USF. Despite the win, UCONN's "great" defense held USF to ONLY 440 yards of total offense. They are a playmaking, red zone defense, employing a bend but don't break defensive style. The USF game would have been closer except for the fact that USF's kicker is the worst in D1-A Football, but what's done is done. Raymell should have a great game against UCONN, as always. None of this Huck the Fuskies business, either. I want blood this week. I'm sick of losing. 3 is enough. We gotta chop chop chop chop chop.


FUCK the Huskies.




















The St. Louis Rams are winless. Let's win one for Brian.